Post-Birthday Blogging Challenge: Day 4 - Dream Job

There are many jobs I truly want as a  Jill-of-all-trades, however, my main dream job is writing. As I've had this hobby as long as I can remember and I've honed my skills in it since I was a teen. ( And in honour of this post I'll be doing a...

Bonus: 20 Questions for Writers!!

Q: How much of the world around you is reflected in your work and in what way? (Thoughts, moments, impressions, moods, landscapes, objects, people, scenes…)
A: My Christian faith, my heritage, especially my Celtic heritage, the nature trail/woods, willows, and field by my apartment, my daddy's Jesus painting, and  my experience with mental illness.

Q: What is one thing you absolutely can’t do without in your writing?
A: Music. Especially Celtic or Metal.

Q: What are your favourite clichés?
A: Deaths before that character wakes back up, with a happy ending or beginning as it may be.

Q: What clichés do you hate the most?
A: The significant other keeping secrets from their significant other before and after proposal out of fear of disappointing them only to find that they'd not care had they told

Q: You need to come up with a title for your work. How to approach the grievous task?
A: Base it on the inspiration of a song or on something I wrote in it

Q: Tell us about the things you love best in worldbuilding.
A: 1) drawing the maps/flags 2) making up names for countries/people/towns 3) making creatures/races

Q: When you choose a new book, what do you look for?
A: Typically fantasy in other worlds and based in the real world. I enjoy dragon rider books, guardian-themed books, superhero, and dystopian, post-apocolyptic, etc.

Q: What are your literary inspirations?
A: Donita K. Paul's books, Melanie Dickerson's books, JK Rowling's books, and LOTR, Narnia

Q: What are your real-life inspirations?
A: Michael Card, Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller, Bonifacio Tuzan Fahel Jr. (RIP Dear Papa Bud), My Parents (Valerie Fahel-Schaffer & Greggory Schaffer), Bethany Hamilton, Rich Mullins, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, Cassie Bernall, Rachel Scott, Corrie Ten Boom, Trevor McNevan, Nathan Feuerstein, Chris Greenwood, Martin Luther, Vincent Van Gogh, and Brian Hardin, Lottie Moon, Job, King David, Saint Patrick, Tim Hawkins, Queen Esther, Tobymac, Michael Tait, Robin Williams, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Alex and Brett Harris, Saint Peter(Simon Peter), Kevin Max, Brennan Manning and Mother Teresa.

Q: Are you the kind of writer who overshares about every little thing or do you keep it all under wraps till it’s done?
A: I am often doing both of these and but it depends on my mindset.

Q: What’s the easiest character for you to write?
A: Morwynne Gael

Q: One thing you are pretty proud of - your style, a work, a scene, a character?
A: I am quite proud of having completed this poetry book, Rainbow Slices and the work I put in it to be unique

Q: Do you read out loud to yourself as you write just to gauge the feeling of it?
A: Yes. Sometimes.

Q: How has your writing changed throughout the years?
A: It's more poetic, more flowing and unique and original than when I started.

Q: What’s the most difficult thing for you to write?
A: Mystery and realistic fiction

Q: Share a happy memory related to your writing.
A: The happiest memory I can share was when I recieved this dedication on Wattpad:

It was a major encouragement for me as I was going through a lot when it came to my faith.

Q: Is there anything you wanna share with the class? Advice? A funny anecdote?
A: Writing is an amazing coping skill. My advice is for people to try it at least once before shooting the idea down. And for writers, the best advice I can give is to keep writing. You wanna improve? Write. You need to break writer's block? Write. Any problems a writer has with writing I believe can be fixed if you simply write haha

Q: How do you come up with new story ideas?
A: music, base it on an analogy of my life etc.

Q: What’s your ideal writing space? Share all about this fantasy of yours!
A: 1) Notebook.ai 2) Wattpad.com 3) at my computer desk in my little corner

Q: Tell us a cool fact about one of your works or your characters.
A: The Brave was based on my surroundings and my experience with demons and what pushed me away from it. Also, the bases were inspired by places I lived in and the idea of how they were most of the time seclusive and felt like their own little world

Post-Birthday Blogging Challenge: Day 3 - Favourite Quote(s) [and why...]

Christians misrepresent God so much that we don't know who He is anymore. For the same God who created the heavens and the earth is also the One who gave His life in the most humiliating and painful way possible. And the same God who showed compassion for the repentant sinner is also the one who turned over the tables of the unrepentant sinners. This is why I love this quote. It paints the beauty of a righteous God and also the merciful God... He is not tamed. But He is good.

As Picasso once said; "Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness." And as a Christian I've always known God was the Creator of Creativity. He is the ultimate up-cycler. And He's remade me more times than I give Him credit for., regrettably. This expressed the reason I love my God. For;  l'amour de dieu est folie (the love of God is folly). His ways aren't my ways. His ways aren't man's ways. And I'm glad for that.

In 2014, I listened to Brian Hardin's dailyaudiobible. And was going through a very difficult in my life. Each day of doing so, I'd get the message that I needed that today, almost every day. And this quote was no exception. I typed it down to remember and it stuck with me ever since. It has helped me through my recovery and that is the reason I love it.

Post-Birthday Blogging Challenge: Day 2 - 2̶0̶ 25 Facts About You

I'm changing the "20 Facts About You" into the number of my age just to make it more fun!

1. I love every colour equally. They each have a reason to be loved, however I have a soft spot for violet. 
2. Also, colours each have a special meaning to me emotionally and spiritually. And my dress style expresses those meanings.
3. I love dragons a lot and stuff but they have been overrated. I truly believe it's the gryphons' turn to have recognition. Because, they are so underrated.
4. I love to play MUD/MMORPG games such as VMK, GaiaOnline, Roblox, Wizard 101, Toon Town , Mabinogi, and Furcadia.
5. I became a furry last year and created my first-ish fursona, Misty Aarin the-- you guessed it-- gryphon. But I only just now wanted to start a fursuit and to start cosplaying.
6. Habitica is an awesome RPG habit former/to-do list that I quite enjoy using.
7. I'm an Ambivert.
8. I'm a Christian-- specifically a ragamuffin Christian (read the last post.)
9. Although I'm questioning my faith/sexuality/gender and have no clue what I believe-- due to that I believe that all people need to let their yes be yes and their no be no. So, for the time-being, until I know what I believe, I will be silent. Because I don't want to come off as wishy-washy or hypocritical.
10. I am about a month away from hitting my 1-year mark from cutting. And as long as I remember, I have had Bipolar Disorder NOS, which has evermore put in the ranks of a Recovery Warrior
11. My favourite thing in the world is music. To listen to it, to play it, and to write it.
12. My top three favourite genres are; Rock/Metal, Folk/Celtic, and Soundtracks/Classical Music
13. My top 5 favourite rock/metal bands/artists are Wolves at the Gate, Thousand Foot Krutch, Disciple, Memphis May Fire, and Skillet
14. My top 5 favourite folk/Celtic bands/artists are Blackmore's Night, Gaelic Storm, Andrew Peterson, Joshua Aaron, Michael Card.
15. I write poetry and stories.
16. As a novelist, I write fantasy, sci/fi, adventure, action, etc.
17. My top 5 favourite Disney/Pixar films are Brave, Zootopia, Moana, Inside Out, and Mulan.
18. My favourite animated shows are Trolhunters, Avatar: The Last Airbender, MLP: FiM, Steven Universe, and Voltron.
19. Psych, especially DBT and MBTI is a passion of mine.
20. And on that topic, I also am rather passionate about breaking the stigma around mental illness.
21. I love archery and really have the dream of buying myself a bow and a few arrows, one day.
22. I live out on my parents' place and with my brother and roommate, now.
23. I love to help stray kitties.
24. I am a Manga/Anime/Furry Artist. Graphic as well as Abstract Surrealist and Abstract/Post Expressionist
25. I'm also a photographer and I do a photography journal on my Instagram that shares my daily experiences in my faith and my mental illness

Post-Birthday Blogging Challenge: Day 1 - Your [Main] Blog's Name

So for my post-birthday, I am taking up a 30-day blogging challenge here as a way for y'all to get to know the authoress/cosplayer behind the screen!

spartanbugsaint

Well, I have spoken of the story/inside joke with some people before, but I go to a church called All Saints Church Spartanburg. And we were doing our annual meeting to plan for the New Years of 2014. Brian Hardin of dailyaudiobible had visited and preached as a guest pastor and then the service was over and we did our meeting to plan for 2014.... The meeting had a slideshow up there and there was a huge typo. Spartanbug instead Spartanburg. And it stuck with me sooo I used it as my blog url and many of my usernames online.

The Peculiar Tales of a Ragamuffin Warrior Princess

1) The Peculiar Tales of...

pe·cu·liar

pəˈkyo͞olyər/

adjective

strange or odd; unusual.

I penned this idea as a teenager when I started sharing my writings on homeschoolblogger.com. And when I was trying to find alternate ways to express my zany quirks without resorting to the word "insane". I really loved being different and "weird" just didn't sound unique enough to describe my stories and life. So, I  settled on peculiar.

tale

tāl/

noun

plural noun: tales

a fictitious or true narrative or story, especially one that is imaginatively recounted.

I also wanted to make tales the focal point. Whether it was my fictional scriptings or my life experiences, or things I watched/read/etc. The blog kicked off and doubled as a way to log my life and hobbies but also a place to share my poems or stories and media reviews. 

2) Ragamuffin

rag·a·muf·fin

ˈraɡəˌməfən/

noun

 1) a ragged, disreputable person; tatterdemalion. 2) a child in ragged, ill-fitting, dirty clothes.

So, in the past four to five years, I have based my faith on the book, The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning's assessment of what faith in Christ truly means. What's very common in churches these days is that either somehow God owes us the good things he has given us or that we must somehow earn grace.

Of course, neither of these are true for as said in the book “My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.” and “Through no merit of ours, but by His mercy, we have been restored to a right relationship with God through the life, death, and resurrection of His beloved Son. This is the Good News, the gospel of grace.” 

3) Warrior

war·ri·or

ˈwôrēər/

noun

(especially in former times) a brave or experienced soldier or fighter.

Through therapy and faith, I have always been a warrior. Claiming that as a part of my nature has helped guide me in my recovery from many a thing. And so, of course in this double-meaninged term, I claimed this identity with pride.

4) Princess

prin·cess

ˈprinsəs,ˈprinˌses

noun

• the daughter of a monarch.
• a close female relative of a monarch, especially a son's daughter.
• the wife or widow of a prince.

This speaks for itself. God is the King of the universe and I am His daughter. But also part of the Body/Bride of Christ. And Christ is the Prince of Peace :)